Presents: Information for participants: Your microphone will be muted for the formal presentation. If you cant hear, try running the Audio Set Up Wizard (under the meeting menu). How to Engage: 1) You can interact through the “Set Status” feature. 2) PLEASE ASK QUESTIONS. Type questions into the chat box at any time during the webinar. They will be addressed at the end. 1 "Faculty Development for STEM Student Success: Strategies for Generating a Campus Culture of Best Practice” Presented by Dr. Susan Shadle and Dr. Doug Bullock Boise State University

 Faculty Development for STEM Student Success: Strategies for Generating a Campus Culture of Best Practice NSF STEP Webinar December 2012 Susan Shadle, Ph.D. Director, Center for Teaching and Learning, Professor of Chemistry Doug Bullock, Ph.D Associate Professor of Mathematics

Goals for this webinar  Explore several specific strategies for STEM faculty development  Consider how STEM faculty development might best be supported on one’s home campus

Why focus on faculty?  Interactions with faculty influence student retention & persistence  Effective pedagogy/high impact practices impact student learning and retention in STEM majors  On a commuter campus, class time is the primary opportunity to influence student integration into the university.

Faculty Change and “Research- Based Instructional Strategies”  Faculty Change = innovation-decision process  Requires  a shift in how faculty define teaching and identify themselves as teachers.  a new set of pedagogical skills (“research-based instructional strategies”) C. Henderson, M. Dancy, M. Niewiadomska-Bugaj, Use of research-based instructional strategies in introductory physics: Where do faculty leave the innovation-decision process? Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research 8, (2012). High userLow userNot triedNo knowledge Discontinued use

 Questions to Stimulate Thinking about STEM Faculty Development

Question 1: How do you support those who are already engaged?  Who are the faculty who are relatively far along the innovation-decision process? (aka “the CHOIR”)  Do they know each other?  How are they being fed and recognized?  How might they be supported to “lead in place”?  How do you grow the “choir”?

Boise State University  ~20,000 undergraduates  Many non-traditional students/”commuter campus”  ~66% 1 st generation college students  >3600 STEM Majors (fall 2012)  Arts and Sciences/Engineering  49% growth in the last 5 years!  385 graduates in 2012  ~180 full-time &~60 part-time STEM Faculty in 12 departments

 Question 1: How do you support those who are already engaged? … “Feeding the Choir”

Best Practices in STEM Teaching and Learning Symposium  ½ day (January 2011)  Invited the choir (~50 ppl); ~40 attendees  Two sets of case studies based on Boise State faculty  Pedagogy and assessment  Speed sharing

Example Faculty Case Study Context Application & Reflection Discussion What do you see as the strengths of this kind of PBL practice? How might these ideas/practices be incorporated into your teaching? What kinds of practices do you use to foster student engagement and success? What do you do to support student learning of skills like problem solving and teamwork?

Best Practices in STEM Teaching and Learning Symposium (II)  Session part of a larger campus symposium  Case studies based on Boise State faculty  Invited everyone  ~50 attendees

Supporting Emerging Leaders  Two faculty worked with their department chair to bring quick pedagogical ideas to department meetings  Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) Leadership institute  sent new department chair (“choir” member) 

Question 2: Where/How does dialogue happen on your campus?  Are there existing programs or events during which faculty talk about teaching?  Are there existing meetings that could be used for dialogue around teaching?  Can you/should you create new structures?

STEM Focused Faculty Learning Communities Faculty Learning Communities are groups of 8-10 faculty who meet with a facilitator to engage in exploration of teaching and learning topics over the course of an academic year STEM faculty Calculus faculty

“Active Learning at Lunch” Regular brown bag lunch series:  session focused on the experience of an engineering faculty member who re-took Calculus I

Question 3: Where can faculty “go” to get support for best-practice pedagogy?  Is there a program or Center for Teaching and Learning? A faculty committee?  Is there travel money for faculty development in STEM?  Can an outside workshop leader be brought in?

Question 3: Where can faculty “go” to get support for best-practice pedagogy?  Is there a program or Center for Teaching and Learning? A faculty committee?  Is there travel money for faculty development in STEM?  Can an outside workshop leader be brought in? At Boise State  CTL consultations & workshops CTL Travel Awards Outside workshop facilitators

 What ideas might you explore to engage faculty on your campus? Q1 How do you support those who are already engaged? Q2 Where/How does dialogue happen on your campus? Q3 Where can faculty “go” to get support for best-practice pedagogy?

Successes and Barriers  This work has been building over time… each year we engage ~ STEM faculty (out of ~180 FT/60 PT faculty)  Helps to have support from deans and department chairs  There are real limitations  Non-engagement/dismissal, Other priorities, Limited faculty time/workload availability High userLow userNot triedNo knowledge Discontinued use

The importance of faculty… “Faculty members who take risks with their teaching, experiment with innovative pedagogical approaches, and make teaching and learning a collaborative activity are more likely to foster student success.” Kinzie, J. (2005). Promoting student success: What faculty members can do (Occasional Paper No. 6). Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research